An
ecosystem engineer is any
organism that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a
habitat. These organisms can have a large impact on the
species richness and landscape-level
heterogeneity of an area. As a result, ecosystem engineers are important for maintaining the health and stability of the environment they are living in. Since all organisms impact the environment they live in in one way or another, it has been proposed that the term "ecosystem engineers" be used only for
keystone species whose behavior very strongly affects other organisms